Our modern day English word electron and, by extension, electricity itself is rooted in the Ancient Greek word elektron, meaning "amber".

While he did not fully comprehend the magnitude of his discovery, Thales of Miletus is credited with the first recorded observations of static electricity, back in 585 BC, which he came upon after rubbing a piece of amber with animal fur. Further pursuing the ramifications of this discovery two millennia later, the Englishman, William Gilbert, coined the terms electricity, electric force, magnetic pole, and electric attraction, in his scientific book De Magnete.